Yesterday the Detroit Tigers wrapped up their short two-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Tigers would go on to lose the game 8-0 after winning the first game of the series on Tuesday night. With the loss the Tigers dropped to 19-22 on the season and 9-5 in the month of May. The Detroit Tigers currently still hold second place in the American League Central.
Key Points:
- Detroit Tigers lost 8-0 to the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday.
- The Tigers split their two-game series against the Pirates.
- Tigers are 19-22 this season and 9-5 in May.
- The Tigers are currently in second place in the American League Central.
Rich Hill shuts down Tigers lineup
Yesterday was a tough day for the Tigers as their manager AJ Hinch was ejected for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Nic Lentz and on top of that, the Tigers hitters just could not figure out Rich Hill. Hill pitched six shutout innings, and the Tigers only managed to muster up one hit off Hill; that hit would be the lone Tigers hit all game. AJ Hinch had this to say after the game about Hill’s dominant performance.
“The art of pitching is still alive if you watched today’s game, He was really good. He changed angles, changed speeds, changed pace. He got a lot of quick outs and stayed in the game longer than he has in his last couple starts. He pitched to the corners, didn’t make a ton of mistakes, fed off an aggressive group that we had today and never conceded.” – AJ Hinch
Eduardo Rodriguez got the ball for the Detroit Tigers, who has been near-perfect in his last six starts. In yesterday’s outing, Rodriguez struggled, giving up two runs in the second inning when the Pirates had runners on first and second with two out. Austin Hedges hit a fly ball to Matt Vierling in center field, who was playing with Riley Greene having the day off; Vierling dropped the ball and allowed two runs to score. Hinch had this to say about the play.
“Tough play, we’re playing (Hedges) to pull (the ball). The cutter was supposed to be middle-in, but it was middle-out. It looked like Vierling lost a little bit of his awareness of where he was. He went a really long way and then stumbled a little bit at the end.” – AJ Hinch
Rodriguez would only last five innings, his shortest outing since April 5th against the Astros when he only lasted 4.2 innings. Rodriguez just didn’t have his best stuff yesterday and he even said it after the game.
“That was one of those days the command wasn’t there, and they took advantage of it, the command was off on all my pitches. … It happened during the game. I tried to figure it out during the game, but I felt like it was the same all the time.” – Eduardo Rodriguez
Wrap Up
The Detroit Tigers will now hit the road and head to the nation’s capital as they will start a three-game series against the Washington Nationals, who currently sit in last place of the National League East and could be a pivotal series for the Tigers as they look to keep pace with the Minnesota Twins who currently lead the American League Central division.
